Introducing Belle!

Readers, I know what you're thinking. ("You do?") Yes, I do. You are wondering when in the heck did Kevin and I get a dog. ("How'd you know? Are we that predictable?") Don't take it too hard, Reader, I'm just very intuitive. You could say God gave me the gift of discernment. Well, to answer your question, we were blessed with little ol' Belle on approximately July 25, 2012, at 10:22 a.m. We picked her up from her previous owners (a.k.a. our friend's mom and stepdad) and without any resistance at all Belle climbed into the back of two strangers' car with the promise of plenty of treats and heavy petting. (I'm sorry... that was a terrible thing to type. But I'm going to leave it because it's true.)

 She had no clue that she was going to live with us.

 Just happy to have the wind in her hair and smells in her nose.

Hooray!

In case you can't tell, Belle is a beautiful, purebred (read: too good for her half-breed, mutt owners) Golden Retriever. She has long, golden hair that can be found in clumps on the carpet and likes to stick to my black skinny jeans. She has dark, brown eyes and two sets of eye lids. (DID YOU KNOW THAT DOGS HAVE MORE THAN ONE PAIR OF EYELIDS?! Google it!) Belle has straight, yellowed teeth and breath that smells strongly of old seafood. She refuses to eat doggy breath mints and enjoys gagging herself on long pieces of grass. She chooses to only relieve herself in one section of our yard and she is more than content to lounge around in the sunshine all day long. She likes long naps on the ground and being petted. It doesn't matter if you pet her with your foot or your hand; you just have to touch her.

 Layin' on her bed.

Layin' out.

 Layin' outside with a ball.

Layin' in the sun next to some sun tea.

I know, I know. She's the best. But, since we're being honest here, there's one more thing about Belle that you should know. She's handicapped.

*heart breaks*

In case you can't tell, Reader, our sweet Belly Button only has three legs. Yes, that's right, the cutest dog in the world just melted your heart into a puddle even more. You see, when she was younger she walked out into the busy road that she lived on and was hit by a giant log truck.

[source]

That's right. A small, simple minded dog played chicken with a log truck and lived to tell us about it. Despite her disability, she is happy. Belle is so smiley (as you can see from her photos), so loving, so easy going, and just wants to be a normal dog. She's truly an inspiration. Watch her in action:

She wags her tail every time she goes up the stairs. (Thanks again, Wondershare Video Editor!)

Here she is again doing one of her favorite doggy activities. Enjoy:

This is how we keep her fur so soft and fresh smelling.

Belle blows raspberries in your general direction, log truck!

To be honest, most of the time we don't even think about how she isn't "normal". It sucks that she had that happen to her and it would be nice if she had all of her legs, but if she did, we probably wouldn't have the pleasure of taking care of her. The reason her owners couldn't keep her is because they are moving onto their sailboat and will be exploring the Bahamas for the rest of their lives. And they knew they couldn't take a clumsy, three-legged dog out on the open seas. So, you see, if Belle had four legs she would be on a boat right now, laying in the tropical sunshine all day, lapping up mai-tais, and skinny dipping with dolphins. Instead she gets to spend her time with her new parents, go for rides in the back of a dirty '97 Acura, walk on a leash to the mailbox every day, and wear any kind of accessory a dog could want.

I'm glad she doesn't know what she's missing.

Ignorance is bliss.